The Jakarta Metro Police has named six suspects in the attack against Ade Armando, a lecturer of communications studies at the University of Indonesia, that took place during a mass protest by university students outside the House of Parliament (DPR) complex in Central Jakarta on Monday afternoon.
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Two suspects — identified as Muhammad Bagja and Komar — have been arrested, with the police revealing that both of them are entrepreneurs, not university students.
Tubagus Ade Hidayat, who heads Jakarta Metro Police’s Directorate of General Crime Investigation, said in a press conference yesterday that Bagja and Komar were apprehended in South Jakarta and Jonggol district in Bogor regency, West Java, respectively.
Police are still in pursuit of the other four suspects, who have been identified as Dhia Ul Haq, Ade Purnama, Abdul Latip, and Abdul Manaf.
“We deliberately exposed the other four suspects’ identities today and we ask them to turn themselves in immediately,” Tubagus said.
Police say they have yet to determine the motive for the assault, noting that the two suspects in custody are still undergoing intensive questioning.
Viral footage of the assault against Ade showed dozens of people punching, kicking, and partially stripping the controversial social media activist at the scene.
Ade was carried away to safety following the assault. The chairman of the civil organization Indonesia Movement for All (PIS) was admitted to the ICU (intensive care unit) at Siloam Hospital in Semanggi.
Nong Darol Mahmada, the secretary general of PIS, said Ade suffered serious injuries from the assault. As of this article’s publication, Ade has been moved to the hospital’s HCU (high care unit).
“The doctor’s tests revealed intracranial hemorrhage,” she said on Monday evening.
“Ade Armando had vomited blood several times.”
Ade has attracted outrage with his statements in recent years, particularly from many Muslims. Some of his most controversial statements include suggesting that Allah, the Islamic God, is not Arab, and that the Islamic call to prayer is not sacred.
Ade’s name has been the top trending topic on Indonesian Twitter for much of this week, with many taking delight in seeing him assaulted and humiliated. Others weren’t so impressed, saying that nobody deserves to be the victim of such brutal violence.
